Why Arsene Wenger’s new offside rule proposal wouldn’t actually work

Arsene Wenger has been spotted a number of times in the suites at the 2026 FIFA World Cup, and he’s well known as a legendary coach in the English Premier League at Arsenal.

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He’s also featuring prominently in a big debate over the offside rule. And it’s Wenger who has a proposal to change how it’s enforced that would be a big shift.

Wenger wants offside to only exist if an attacker is fully beyond a defender — not just a knee or a toenail, but the entire body beyond the entire defender.

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It would look like this:

What offside would be and not be if
Arsène Wenger, FIFA’s chief of global football development, gets his way.

The change effectively means there has to be daylight between attacker and defender for an offside offense.

Otherwise, all those goals count. pic.twitter.com/oK7UGfkx1x

— Joe Schad (@schadjoe) July 3, 2026

There are two reasons this wouldn’t accomplish what those who want offside to work differently would want.

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What’s wrong with Arsene Wenger’s offside proposal?

The first is clear: It just moves the goalposts.

Instead of VAR reviews determining whether a player was an inch offside, they’ll have to determine… whether a player was an inch offside. It’ll just be the point of arbitration that shifts.

The margins will still be razor thin, just moved.

But then consider how this would impact the game: It’d be a lot riskier to defend with a player a full body length beyond the defense, rather than even.

Likely, it would lead to a lot of low-block defending, with the defensive line all behind the ball. There’d be a lot less space to play the ball in behind at all.

Most likely, it would remove many of the great runs and passes that lead to brilliant goals.

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So yeah, a creative idea, but unlikely to hit the mark.

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